Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News

Malcolm X School Gardener Wins National Service Award

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday May 29, 2007

In many ways, Rivka Mason is like any other elementary school gardener who likes to teach students how to grow a green thumb. -more-

Berkeley Health Report: Disparities Persist

By Judith Scherr

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Health staff and public information officers were upbeat last week when they called out the press to a Tuesday morning briefing in which they emphasized the city’s overall good health. -more-

Bus Rapid Transit Foes Applauded At Meeting

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday May 29, 2007

The only hearts and minds Bus Rapid Transit seemed to have captured during an emotional public meeting in Berkeley Thursday were those it already possessed. -more-

Oakland Council Delays Look at Contract Discrimination

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Tuesday May 29, 2007

A long delayed study of fairness in purchasing and contracts by the City of Oakland has shown that minority- and women-owned firms are being discriminated against by city agencies, but contractors will now have to wait another few months to find out what, if anything, Oakland City Council will do about it. -more-

University Describes $130 Million Clark Kerr Campus Rehabilitation

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Berkeley Planning Commissioners got their first look last week at the university’s plans for a $130 million retrofit of the Clark Kerr Campus, the 500-acre, 20-building Spanish Colonial Revival complex on the corner of Derby and Warring streets. -more-

Youth Connect Serves the Young and the Homeless

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday May 29, 2007

High-Density Plan Back on Downtown Committee Agenda

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday May 29, 2007

BUSD Delays Vote on Solar Panels

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Police Offer Reward In Year’s 1st Murder

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Police Blotter

By Rio Bauce

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Rivka Mason works with students in the Malcolm X Elementary School gardens. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.

Editorials

Edtorial: Fractious Council, Late Nights Make Bad Laws

By Becky O’Malley

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Outside my window the scrub jays are engaged in their annual uproar. It might be about sex, it might be about fledglings, it might be about squirrels—who knows, but there’s always a bunch of them, and they’re always raucous. It’s possible even the jays have forgotten by now why they do it, but they do it every spring. -more-